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Fry Art Gallery

Whilst in Saffron Walden I visited the Fry Art Gallery. It is a brilliant little gallery, which houses original works by Edward Bawden, Eric Ravilious, Michael Rothenstein and Richard Bawden, to name a few.

The main room has a display from the permanent collection called A Modern Sensibility, which features some impressive prints from Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious. These were the highlights for me, especially Bawden’s Liverpool Street Station and Snowstorm at Brighton. It was also useful being able to compare the print of Brighton Pier at the Fry Art Gallery to the ones I saw earlier in the year at the Bedford Higgins. Another highlight was the set of lithographs by Eric Ravilious detailing life on a submarine. This display is available to view until October.

The second half of the gallery was a special exhibition called Richard Bawden At 80. It featured prints and paintings by Edward Bawden’s son, Richard. I particularly liked the Christmas card designs and the cat chair!

There were also a couple of small rooms, one of which contained other smaller Ravilious and Bawden pieces, including some lovely woodblocks by Ravilious, and a display of book covers by Saffron Walden based collage artist Michelle Thompson.

I was really impressed with the gallery. It has such an important collection of artwork and anyone interested in printmaking should try and visit. The staff were very nice and there are some lovely books available to buy as well!